Heewon Kim

The limits of India’s ethno-linguistic federation: Understanding the demise of Sikh nationalism

ABSTRACT From 1984 until 1993, the Indian state of Punjab witnessed a sustained insurgency by Sikh militants campaigning for a separate sovereign state. This insurgency was ultimately defeated by the overwhelming use of security force that officially resulted in the deaths of 30,000 people. By the mid-1990s, a ‘normalcy’ had returned to Punjab politics, but the underlying issues which had fuelled the demand for separatism remain unaddressed. This paper examines critically the argument that India’s ethno-linguistic federation is exceptional in accommodating ethno-nationalist movements. By drawing on the Punjab case study, it argues that special considerations apply to the governance of peripheral regions (security, religion). Regional elites in these states struggle to build legitimacy because such legitimacy poses a threat to India’s nation and state-building. In short, India’s ethno-linguistic federation is only partially successful in managing ethno-linguistic demands in the peripheral Indian states.

Understanding Modi and minorities: The BJP-led NDA government in India and religious minorities

ABSTRACT In the May 2014 general elections in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the majority party. The BJP has formed a coalition with regional parties (the National Democratic Alliance), but many view the event as a “critical election,” presaging the realignment of Indian politics along Hindu nationalist values. This article reviews the approaches used to understand the BJP-led NDA government’s policies toward religious minorities and argues that far from marking a radical departure, there are more continuities than discontinuities in these policies with previous administrations.

India's Muslim spring: why is nobody talking about it?

examining how various political entities, including the British government in its relations with India, approached human rights in a largely ‘instrumentalist’ manner. Chapter 7 is particularly instructive in this regard because it chronicles the ‘sectarian’ and ‘instrumentalist’ response to human rights of all major political parties/actors in Punjab – including the Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Akali Dal, and various insurgent groups – during the 1970s Naxalite movement and Sikh separatist movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Singh’s book is not a work of pure ‘social science’ narrowly defined, but rather a fascinating blend of empirical analysis/interpretation, historiography, and political philosophy. Thus, it can be criticized for being somewhat disjointed in its analytical presentation, casual logic, and historical interpretation. The book’s empirical argument would have been further strengthened by adding a chapter on human rights dynamics in another conflict zone in India such as Kashmir or Assam. The human rights patterns found in Punjab would likely have also been present in these other cases. A chapter containing in-depth personal narratives of other victims of human rights abuses in India, in addition to his own, could have also further bolstered the evidence for both the book’s empirical and normative arguments. Such chapters would have further enhanced the purely ‘social science’ dimension of this otherwise well-written and thought-provoking scholarly treatise on the relationship of economics, culture, and human rights. In conclusion, Singh’s book deserves to be read closely and his arguments contemplated in a very mindful manner by those who profess to value human rights. After all, the ‘instrumentalist’ approach to human rights praxis remains only selective and usually ‘sectarian’ based on cost/benefit calculations; whereas the ‘intrinsic-worth’ approach truly respects human rights as a universal moral value. This, as Singh argues, is true in relation to Punjab, India and indeed beyond.